This week’s podcast addresses several trends that both inhibit and accelerate rapid adoption of Enterprise Social Networks. It seemed like this Boulder mountain scape was a good metaphor to ask How High a Mountain?

 

People, process, and psychology are all inhibiting the adoption of enterprise social networks. Progress is steady - it is just a question of when, not whether network behaviors will be embraced by every organization in the world. And there are powerful forces at work to accelerate adoption as well - recruitment of new employees from generation X and generation Me into the workforce, the development of new technologies and products that make networks more powerful - for instance mobile technologies and analytics and semantic search, and the passage of time that advances us on the learning curve of network adoption.

 

The “people problem is real. There are 3 parts to it:

 

(1) Communication styles are different amongst people. To apply a Meyers/Briggs analysis, 80% of people are concrete and linear communicators, while only 20% communicate abstractly - primarily the inventors and the idealists. Please understand me. David Keirsey and Marilyn Bater.

 

(2) Natural resistance to change. Enterprise social networks change roles and responsibilities. Old network behaviors are comfortable. Group communication from new network behaviors requires work and understanding.

 

(3) Reward and recognition. To use a sports metaphor when using enterprise social networks, everyone gets on the field. This means that some of the best ideas and inputs may come from those who don’t have traditional measures of stature, or may not otherwise receive recognition and reward. ESN’s are in a sense the great leveler. So your million dollar superstar. super performer may have some competition and at times be outcompeted by the unknown but powerful ideas of those who otherwise don’t get on the field. This is a big adjustment for many organizations.

 

Process is also an inhibitor in that networks by definition are designed to create unpredictable, rapid, change - to find that one great idea - the Eureka moment, which is so obvious that it can not be ignored.

 

Networks often trump organizational charts and communications diagrams traditionally used by many organizations. Increasingly, networks are being built from the ground up - as emergent networks - rather than from the top down. This is disruptive change that takes time.

 

Psychology and motivation of network participants is also important. As an organization you can not engineer motivation. You can do everything right, put all of the right ingredients in place to foster the growth of members, but if individuals do not see the value or reward in network participation, adoption can be slow. Even small attributes of network communication can slow you down. I use the story of Neighborhood America’s “The Beat” to illustrate this dilemma.

 

But there are also trends that are accelerating network adoption. These include rapid changes in the workforce, new technologies and product development, and time itself.
 

Organizations are having to find ways to recruit generation X and Me. They will only be successful with adoption of enterprise social networks. There are several excellent references in this area including the blog Distribution Trends by Dr. Adam J. Fein, and Talent Readiness (www.talentreadiness.com) by Margaret Schweer, who addresses the Next Generation Enterprise.

 

New product development and technologies in mobile connectedness are very important. There are 1B personal computers in the world, but 3B cell phones. As infrastructure improves, the cell phone is going to be the device that enables connections. Also semantic search and analytics tools are going to enable institutions to better understand network behavior and how they can be successful in building network value with employees, customers, and partners or citizens.

 

Time is ultimately going to enable learning and change.

 

No one today knows how high the mountain is. It is there. We aren’t at the bottom and we are no where near the top.

Listen to the podcast here.